I crossed my arms over my chest. “You have some explaining to do, Kowi. I feel like we’ve been lied to.”

Kowi’s face was a mask of no expression. He closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again to stare at me and then Bodo.

“We haven’t lied to you. But we haven’t exactly told you everything, either. Let’s sit down and I’ll tell you what I can.”

***

I sat on the floor of the hut near enough to Bodo that I could feel his body heat. It was comforting, since I knew he was the only person in this place who I could trust right now.

Kowi explained, “We’re having a little bit of trouble with a neighboring tribe, the Creeks.”

“That’s what Coli is,” I said.

“Yes. Our … relationship is supposed to help the tribes get along. So far it’s only having limited success.”

“You might have tried to find a happier bride.”

He tilted his head, his face still giving nothing away. “One does not always get to choose who he ends up with.”

I raised an eyebrow at that, not even really sure what he meant, but I’m pretty sure Coli wouldn’t have liked hearing it. Was he saying she had been chosen only for tribal purposes? Or that he’d fallen in love with a woman who’d never be happy? It was impossible to tell with his emotionless delivery.

“So what’s happening, den? Seemss like da Creeks must not be very happy if dey’re kidnapping your friends.”

“They’ve been causing general trouble with us for months … stealing supplies, food, occasionally trying to take our women. But we’ve never had them take one of our men before.”

“Probably because they’re more difficult targets.”

“Except for dat Yokci guy,” added Bodo, totally straight-faced

I couldn’t help but smile at that, wishing Yokci had heard it.

“Yes, our men - all of them - are difficult targets.” He glared at Bodo, now letting some of his anger slip through.

I brushed off their macho pissing contest. “Why would they take Peter, though? I mean, no offense to my friend, but he’s totally useless as a warrior or whatever.”

“They know he’s valuable to us, or we wouldn’t have let him stay here. They don’t have to know what his value is, just that he is important.”

“So what … he’s like a bargaining chip now?”

“Maybe. Either that or they’ll just plan on integrating him into their tribe somehow. Or … ”

Bodo leaned in towards me and said, “He iss good at organizing and cleaning thingks.”

I shoved him with my elbow. Now was no time to joke about Peter’s obsessive compulsive disorder.

“Or what?”

“Or they’ll deliver him out of Kahayatle and send him on his way. He’s an outsider - a trespasser. He has no right to be here.”

I instantly felt sick, imagining Peter wandering around out there without supplies or a way to defend himself. He’d be lunch before dinner. “I want him back. They can’t have him and I won’t allow anyone to kick him out of here.” I seared Kowi with a look, letting him know there would be hell to pay if anything happened to my friend.

“I know that, Nokosi. We’re going to find him and bring him back to you.”

“You’d better,” I said, getting up to storm out of the hut. I paced back and forth in front of it, frustrated that there was nothing I could do.

Bodo came up and joined me, standing off to the side, talking quietly.

“Don’t worry, Bryn, dey’re going to bring him back to us.”

“They’d better, or I’m gonna go American white girl all over their asses. I’m serious, Bodo.”

“I know you are. I’m not exactly sure what dat means, what you just said about asses, but it sounds scary. I’m sure dey won’t sendt him out of da swamp.”

“Oh really?!” I said, looking at him and letting my anger get the most of me. “And how do you know that, Bodo? Did your book report delve into the psychological mindset of the Creek indians?”

“No,” he said, without emotion.

“Oh, well, maybe you’re using your German mind-reading skills then.”

“No, I don’t have any of dose.”

I threw my hands up. He was impossible to make angry which only made me more frustrated.

He put up his fists in his pitiful imitation of a mock martial arts stance. “Do you want to fight me? Causs I’m pretty sure I could take you down.”

I shook my head. “Don’t be stupid, Bodo. I’ll break your friggin arms off.”

He gestured with his head, egging me on. “Come on, little girl. Little Smellykinder. Give me your best shot. I can take it.”

My arms were twitching, I wanted to take him up on his offer so bad. “I’m warning you, Bodo …”

He stepped right up to me and play-slapped me on the cheek. “Dare you go. I got you now.”

I shook my head, bewildered by the fact that he was begging for a butt whooping so insistently.

“You’re scared. Dat’s the problem. I don’t blame you really. Now you’f seen my muscles and you’re scared of what I can do to you. Dat’s okay. You’d better just take a pass, den.”

He lowered his arms and I couldn’t stop myself. I ran at him full force, taking him down like a football dummy.

He tried to grab me around the waist, but I slammed him into a tree, instantly breaking his grip. He pushed himself up to meet me again, stepping forward aggressively.

“Bodo! Cut it out! I’m not messing around, you’re going to get hurt.” I tried to back up away from him.

“Not me!” he said, grinning evilly.

I shook my head. “Fine, idiot. But don’t blame me when you’re in pain later.” I took four quick swipes at him, landing some bruising blows and keeping him busy blocking me, all the while making him move backwards to avoid the worst of it. He couldn’t see where he was going, but I could.

“Next time,” I grunted, giving him a jab to the abdomen with my left, “…think harder …” my right came next, following up after the left “… about who you pick…” I used both fists this time in the middle of his solar plexus “…a fight with.” My last move was a kick to his lower abdomen, folding him nearly in half and sending him flying backwards into the shallow body of water behind him.

His arms and legs went flailing, but nothing could stop his backward motion. He landed on his back in the water with a big splash.

I heard clapping off to the side and saw three guys standing there, Kowi and two others I didn’t recognize, admiring my performance.

Bodo jumped up out of the water, whipping his shirt off and standing there half naked, dripping wet, yelling, “Oh, I see your plan! You just wanted to see me with my shirt off again! Very tricky, Bryn, very tricky. I didn’t see dat coming at all.”

I shook my head and walked away, but only after getting an eyeful of that gorgeous chest of his again. Man, do I have it bad.

I tried to stay mad, but his little devious plan had worked. My mind had been taken off our problem with Peter and the frustration was temporarily out of my system. I wondered if Bodo was going to be my self-designated punching bag now that he’d so accurately guessed the most efficient way I knew of to calm my runaway emotions - fight therapy.

***

It was getting dark. Occasionally guys would come back to our hut to let Kowi know what was going on. It was clear that he was the official or unofficial chief of this tribe now. Everyone reported to him and followed his orders. I guess that made Coli the indian princess or whatever.

Her disposition hadn’t changed. She at least wasn’t outwardly aggressive towards me, but it was probably only temporary, merely done out of respect for the fact that I was worried about Peter. She wasn’t here now, having left with the last group of people who went out tracking him.

Two guys came running into the clearing by the huts about an hour later and went immediately to Kowi. I got the sense that they had important news, so I rushed over to listen in on their conversation. I didn’t catch any of it since it was over before I got there, but I did hear Kowi’s response.

“Tell them that’s unacceptable.”

“Tell who what is unacceptable?” I asked.

Bodo came and stood beside me, casting nervous glances between Kowi and me.

Kowi looked at his cohorts and sighed before answering. “The Creek have Peter. They said that they’re going to send him out of the Kahayatle unless we agree to their demands.”

“What demands?”

“It doesn’t matter. We won’t agree to them.”

“You have to agree to them!” I yelled. “You can’t let them send him out of here! He’ll get killed inside of ten minutes!”

Kowi shook his head very slowly. “Don’t forget your place here, Nokosi. You are not Miccosukee. You stay at our pleasure. You are in no position to tell me what I can and cannot do.”

I stepped closer to him - close enough that I knew he could feel the angry heat coming off my body. “Listen here, cougar. I came here and brought you gifts in the form of bombs. I agreed to train your people. Without me you’ll always be the Creek’s little bitches. Is that what you want?”

His upper lip curled an instant before he tried to push me away, but I was ready for it, easily blocking his arms and throwing them out to the side, making him look like a goofy pinwheel.

Buster was barking like a maniac and I heard Bodo trying to calm him down in the background.

Kowi wasn’t expecting to be thrown off so easily, so his ego-bruised man instincts took over, causing him to make his second mistake. He reached an arm back to punch me and I watched it travel through space from his shoulder to my face, easily dodging it by leaning to the side and then around him. I let the force of his own move throw him forward, helping to increase the momentum by driving my elbow into his back hard.

He stumbled forward, but tried to recover and take me down by spinning around and grabbing my leg.

Unfortunately for him, krav maga taught me that any move was legal, so long as it resulted in me getting free of my attacker. I adjusted my footing and centered myself, using the knee he’d brought towards him to connect with his nuts. I knew I caught at least one of them when all the air burst out of him and he crumbled to the floor.

His two friends jumped me, each one grabbing one of my arms. Sure that they had me in hand, the didn’t bother doing anything else but hold on. I judged the one on my right to be the one with the strongest grip, so I used his force on my arm as leverage to lift my legs off the ground enough to deliver a heavy-duty side kick to his friend, sending him flying off the edge of the hut. His hip caught the railing and the upper half of his body kept going, flipping him over the top and into the water.

Now I had one guy, a big one, holding me by the arm. He stood there almost frozen in shock. I stopped for a second and looked down at the meaty hands holding me. Then I looked up at him, raising one of my eyebrows for effect. “You sure you wanna do that?”

“Say, no, buddy,” urged Bodo from off on the sidelines. “She’s gonna kick your nuts too. You don’t want dat. You know dat feeling you get in your stomach that takes forever to stop hurting?”

“Just walk away,” I said softly.

He looked down at his chief and at his friend getting up out of the water. I knew the moment he made his decision. These indians thought they were all cool with their stone cold lack of facial expression, but their bodies spoke volumes.

I grabbed the fingers of his hand and bent two of them back until I heard a crunch. He screamed out in pain and roared at the same time, his other hand coming up to grab my hair.